Prodidomus (Miltia) includes fifteen species from the Mediterranean region, Africa, and America. Zimris is an Asiatic genus. The single species of Eleleis (E. crinita) is from the Cape.
Fig. [205].—Drassid Spiders. 1. Drassus lapidosus. 2. Clubiona corticalis. 3. Zora spinimana. 4. Micaria pulicaria.
Fam. 14. Drassidae.—Elongate spiders with low cephalothorax. Legs usually rather long, strong, and tapering, terminated by two pectinate claws, armed with spines, and scopulate. The body is smooth or short haired and frequently unicolorous and sombre-coloured, seldom ornate. The eyes, normally eight, are in two transverse rows. The mouth-parts (labium and maxillae) are long. Spinnerets as a rule terminal, and visible from above.
This important family includes a large number of species from all parts of the world, fifty-six being natives of the British Isles. There are familiar examples in the brown or mouse-coloured spiders which scurry away when stones are raised, or when loose bark is pulled off a tree.
The family may be divided into seven sub-families, of which four, Drassinae, Clubioninae, Liocraninae, and Micariinae, are represented in this country.
(i.) The Drassinae include more than twenty genera, some of which possess numerous species and have a wide distribution. The following may be mentioned:—
Drassus contains twelve British species. The commonest is D. lapidosus, a large dull brown spider, more than half an inch in length, which lives beneath stones in all parts of the country. At least a hundred species of this genus have been described.
Melanophora (= Prosthesima)[[313]] includes a large number of species. They are dark-coloured active spiders, many of them jet black and glossy. Seven are recorded from the British Isles, the average size being about a quarter of an inch. They are found under stones. A closely allied genus is Phaeocedus, whose single species (P. braccatus) has occurred, though very rarely, in the south of England. Gnaphosa has fifty-five species, of which twenty-eight are European, and four are British.
(ii.) The Clubioninae have the anterior spinnerets closer together, and the eyes more extended across the caput than in the foregoing sub-family. Nearly thirty genera have been established, of which three claim special attention. Clubiona includes more than 100 species, chiefly inhabiting temperate regions. Fifteen are included in the British list. They are mostly unicolorous, and yellow or brown in colour, but a few (C. corticalis, C. compta, etc.) have a distinct pattern on the abdomen. Cheiracanthium is a large and widely spread genus, counting three English species. There are more than a hundred species of the genus Anyphaena, of which one only (A. accentuata) occurs in this country, where it is common upon bushes and trees in the south.